2016 Audi R8 V10 and V10 Plus: First Drive Review

After the raucous V10's note, the R8's balance, poise and towering performance envelope are the most easily recognized characteristics.

By
Barry Winfield

Jul 13, 2015

Audi

When you jab a finger on the round red start button on the steering wheel of Audi's new R8 supercar, the 5.2-liter V10 awakes with a quick blip to 2500 rpm, producing a brief blast of sound that tells everyone within earshot that there's something here worthy of attention.

That's just for the pedestrians. Motorists out on the road are treated either to the sight of a sharp new front end with its sculpted headlights and its new, better integrated single-frame grille and gaping air intakes, or to the wide tail with its new trapezoidal twin tailpipes and—on the up-level 610-horsepower V10 Plus—a low-slung carbon fiber spoiler. Many drivers will see both ends, since this car closes on normal road users like a hawk diving on a sparrow. Its extraordinary grip, braking potential and catapult acceleration making very high rates of travel seem not only normal for the public road, but entirely appropriate.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Accompanying the sharpened exterior look is a new aluminum and carbon fiber structure that contributes to lighter weight (3200 pounds) and 40-percent better rigidity. Engineers took the opportunity to provide aluminum suspension pickup points this time around, and chose to use a carbon fiber firewall that also acts as a rear roof support stronger than any other material of its thickness and size.

We first tried the base car, good for 540 hp, and found it astonishingly capable, rocketing through each gear to the 8,500 rpm redline with alacrity, then snapping off upshifts in the fastest and most seamless fashion either of our two occupants had ever experienced. The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is an all-new unit, and it's about the best of its kind despite the many design challenges it posed. Because the V10 is a low-slung, dry-sump monster, the transmission had to have a very low profile. This resulted in three separate oil levels being serviced by one mechanical oil pump, and, with the assistance of fast processors and clever software, in shifts that take just 120 milliseconds in normal use, and even less in the V10 Plus car's performance mode.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

That performance mode is selected by a checkered button at the car's wheel, which is festooned with selector buttons in typical motorsport-inspired practice. It can be fine tuned to an owner's liking, allowing changes to various factors contributing to the car's behavior, and it has separate calibrations for dry, wet and wintry conditions. When we drove the car at the track in Portimao in Portugal, a stab at the checkers pulled up a big tachometer on the car's 12-inch TFT display, and reduced other information to the background.

The virtual cockpit, as Audi calls it, can be configured in numerous ways. One of the best, we thought while strafing the countryside around the Algarve, was a wide-screen navigational view that provided an excellent idea of upcoming corners. It's hard to overstate just how easy this new R8 is to drive quickly. With an active version of quattro worrying about traction at both axles (able to transfer 100-percent of the torque to either axle thanks to a multiplate clutch pack), an available magnetorheological shock system tuning the damping, a torque vectoring diff, and dynamic steering (when fitted) checking the driver's inputs, you probably can't screw it up badly enough even to trigger the traction control or stabilization systems.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Since Audi is claiming a zero-to-60 mph time of around three seconds, and a top speed of 205 mph, it's comforting to know that the electronic saviors are at hand. But really, the R8's balance, poise and towering performance envelope are the most easily recognized characteristics, and they provide ample assurance to any half-decent driver. At Portimao, for example, there are a couple of blind corners, both reached at meaningful velocities. When you're new to the track and can't be quite sure whether the corner beyond the brow goes right or left, or is tight or sweeping, the knowledge that you can exploit crushing deceleration from the ceramic brake discs (standard on V10 Plus, otherwise optional) without lockup or fade, then trail off them to find some kind of a line through the bend, is immensely reassuring.

The sound of that V10 being used at race track speeds is a lot more inspiring than we remember of the previous generation V10. Perhaps it takes sustained high-rpm vocalizations for us to properly appreciate it. Critics have complained that the R8 has a less dramatic sound than its mechanical twin, the Lamborghini Huracan, but think of the benefits on a 400-mile trip. A quiet environment and a respectably smooth ride will give way to a more expressive exhaust note and a much firmer, more responsive demeanor when it's called for, but modern supercars have access to technology that provides the best of both worlds.

Audi

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Predictably, the usual new-car drumbeat applies to this new R8; lighter, faster, stronger, more economical, and better equipped. I think the new look is a big improvement too. While the fore-and-aft changes are in keeping with Audi's evolutionary tendencies, refining and modernizing the already dramatic appearance, the biggest visual improvement is probably the R8's profile. Audi has replaced that single side-blade with carbon fiber elements that sit above and below a sweep of bodywork that runs uninterrupted from the door to the rear quarter. The old blade was intended to camouflage the car's long tail. This treatment does the job so much better.

Audi obviously wants decent bandwidth. The offerings suggest as much. The base car has a little less power, fewer track aspirations, and is to be offered in Autumn at roughly $182,000 (given exchange rates at the time of this writing). The V10 Plus has more power, a rear wing and the performance program, and caters to track-day devotees. The sticker for that one is $206,000. Among the options offered is a laser headlight system that promises twice the penetration, and this is undergoing legal review for use in the States. Audi also produces the R8 LMS, a GT3-spec racer off the same platform, and that version produces less power than the top-tier streetcar; 485 hp as dictated by racing regulations. Prices have not been decided yet for the USA, so stay tuned.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Road & Track participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.